Mt. Bike Now

Sunrise over the Mountains above the Reventazon River

On this particular day, my ride around the CATIE loop, where stage 3 of La Ruta terminates, ended with a view of the Turrialba Volcano spouting off a double plume. The ride through the botanical gardens, around campus and in the outlying areas is a spinner, good for casting away the work day grime.

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Below are two links to slide shows of mtb in the Keweenaw Peninsula on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  The first set are from Swedetown and Maasto Hiito/Churning Rapids:

http://vagoscribe.com/2011/12/30/mtb-keweenaw-swedetown-maasto-hiito-and-churning-rapids/

The second set are from the more famous spot:  Copper Harbor.  Check out the master carpentry skills on display at the IMBA Epic located on the shores of Lake Superior:

http://vagoscribe.com/2011/12/29/copper-harbor-mtb-a-slide-show/

If you’ve not been to the Keweenaw, go!  No crowds, quiet, beautiful, relaxed, oh…and great riding!

Apologies for not adding more insight/info on the trails.  Those details are forthcoming.  Keep a watchful eye, if you are interested in reading about MTB Keweenaw.

Dead Woman’s climb was a labored effort, but when I rolled onto 3 Mile, my body was warmed up and ready to go.  Little did I know that I’d come out on the other side without unclipping for only my third cleaning ever of the old enduro cut trail that at numerous other times has knocked me to the ground.  I was feeling great climbing up Woodrow to Rattlesnake, only to have that ridgeline path knock me back to reality.  Damnit if that wasn’t a high and low all wrapped up in a nice little Michaux gift package!

I had one goal in mind on this outing:  find the trail that drops off the other side of Yellow when you climb up on blue.  Not more than twenty minutes after starting the climb, I found it.  There it was, not at all difficult to find, if you take your time to watch for it, and aren’t bombing the trail.  The next 10-15 minutes was maybe the least technical ridgetop-to-bottom trail in Michaux.  There were no rock gardens, no boulders, no big trees to knock you off your line.  It was fast and fun.

Turning right, I got into a groove climbing back up around on blue.  Rhodos and a mountain stream by the side of the forest road were my zen moment:  primordial, breathing, turning pedals, water washing over rocks, sunlight coming up over the ridge I had just descended.

I went back over the ridge and then back down on blue, taking the forest roads to the reservoir.  Beaver was glorious on a crisp winter’s day:

Popping back up on the forest road, I turned right and got into a nice rhythm as I climbed up to the powerline and then to the Wildcat reroute.  I cleaned the first section of rocky madness, absolutely convinced it was because of the big tires.  Or, maybe I was simply riding well, was an afterthought.  Whatever it was, I was high on mtb life.

Then I dropped off a rocky feature and hit the back end hard.  I hoped all was okay, and it was for another thirty seconds or so. 

Flat tire.  I had a patch kit, so no worries.  On top of the mountain, sun beaming warm, I was in my element, as they say. It didn’t matter that I had no spare tube.  It didn’t matter that I was having trouble with remounting the tire.  It was simply part of the ride.

Saddled up again, I rode a little gingerly and then said to myself:  just ride.  Five minutes later the tire was flat again.  I laughed. I was about a thirty minute hike from my car.  I didn’t want to wrestle with the tire again.  So I decided to take my bike on a walk in the forest.

The hike out was nice:

I had a picnic lunch back at the car after loading up.  The air was calm.  The sun shined on the water as I sat in the quiet setting enjoying a fine Pennsylvania brew.  It never tasted better.

www.vagoscribe.com

Kickapoo State Park in eastern Illinois was a coal strip mine.  Now it’s a place where people can go to hike, camp, scuba, canoe, ride horses, fish and mountain bike.  I get over there about five times a year to ride its tight, twisting eleven miles of singletrack.  I’ve only ever cleaned the entire loop once, the first super steep climb always being a nemesis.  Sometimes the three-short-gut-punch climbs towards the back end knock me off kilter as well.  The big steep climb on the other side of the ravine at the end, on the opposite side of the big steep climb at the beginning, can be ridden if you hunker down and shift forward off the saddle and pedal in a standing crouch.

Only an hour drive from Lafayette, ‘poo is great for post-work rides and weekend morning jaunts.  Fall colors are really nice, especially around the quarries.  Though tight, you can hammer the entire loop, honing your brake v. pump skills in some sections.

Better Looking than a Strip Mine

Singletrack State of Mind

A woodpecker batters its head into a tree.  The temperature is climbing fast.  Humidity is way up.  I am hot, a little muddied up, itchy from the tall grass in the meadow, and have decided to not go for the third lap.  A hawk flies ahead, perching on a different limb.

‘poo MTB

A few passing thoughts in the final mile:  feels like the Peten, or Lacandon…I wish everyone could have a/c…do I wanna stop and get an ice-cream…is it open…less than two weeks until Michaux again…take a drink…wonder exactly how hot it is…

The “new” Wildcat Trail shouldn’t be called “new.”  If we’re talking about the reroute that is to replace the portion of Wildcat that was the fast, rocky, scree downhill, then it is an entirely different trail.  There’s no “old” versus “new” Wildcat to compare.  The reroute is a cross-country trail along a ridge that is classic east coast riding.

I like it, a lot!  Perhaps the best thing about the reroute, other than how it joins up with red, other than how pretty the forest is while riding it, other than the loamy twist and turns, other than the occasional rocks to keep your focus, is how it begins.  You roll into it on soft, rock-free trail for about three minutes, you’re feeling high, and then you enter the Michaux welcome sign:  uphill through rocks that stretch on.

Way to go trail builders!  No need to get too soft on us!

Reroute’s Front Door

Anthills of Michaux (not by Achebe)

The backside of the ridge on red before dropping down to the reservoir is seeing more traffic.  The original trail/lines have become wider in the rock feature sections, riders choosing to not go mountain biking.  That’s too bad.

Riding the original lines, I cleaned it from the intersection up top down to the rock garden that sits right before dumping out at the rez.  That was a Michaux a first for me.  It felt great.

Around the rez, I went:

Pretty Pines

Long Pine Reservoir, Michaux State Forest, PA

I climbed up Yellow on blue and rode around back there where the deer fencing is before coming back to the powerline cut and dropping down to Milesburn.  Up Milesburn to Stillhouse and up some more on the powerline cut, is a nice rest for the arms and wrists.

PA Built

I rode Ridge to a seldom traveled multi-use trail that drops back down to Milesburn.  Proceeding north on Milesburn to where Ridge comes in and up to a trail that contains my favorite little Michaux downhill, I put it on cruise control. I then cut into the trail to the right after the gate, passing a few more anthills before the fast ending that’s a ripper down to Milesburn.

Satisfied, I spun down Milesburn to Birch Run and jumped back on rez trail to my car.  The stream was my mountain shower, cold and refreshing.

I am on my hands and knees along the side of the highway, precisely where I-65 North to Indy begins and where I-64 ends when traveling east from western Indiana, meaning I am on the side of the bend in the median of the exit.  The weeds that nearly poke me in the eyes are a deep green.  They smell a little like garlic, I think.  I am puking for the second time in an hour.

Rewind.

We arrived to O’Bannon Woods State Park in a timely manner after leaving Indy around 6:15 a.m.  Meeting up with another rider at a parking area in the campground, it wasn’t too long before we were heading out on the Adventure Hiking Trail (AHT), a 24 mile, or more, backpacking loop that a few years back was opened up to mountain biking.  Cutting through O’Bannon and part of Harrison-Crawford State Forest, AHT is a newer back country ride in the Midwest.

The initial going was on the wet/muddy side, but the tires rolled fairly well.  Following the green and white blazes was going fine as we wound down the hillsides and climbed straight back up, sometimes requiring hike-a-biking.

No Hoofin’ Permitted

The humidity began to rise, as did my spirits as we moved around to the east side of the loop.  We navigated the logging areas with relative ease, and came upon a fun roller through the bottoms followed by a climb up to an enjoyable ridge line ride.  There were a few lookouts to the river below and another ridge across the way, which had me feeling like I was in a remote setting.  We pedaled into one of the back country shelters and ate some food.

View from the AHT

Though the going was slow with the endless ups and downs, and having to climb over and through downed trees, we progressed at a decent pace.  With each stop, though, we checked ourselves for ticks, picking them off in bunches of twos or threes or fives.

We continued on and came to another shelter with a beautiful stack-stone chimney:

Dreaming of Wood Oven Pizza

After the chimney admiring, we descended down the trail.  We then ascended.  And descended, and ascended.   Gnarley, rocky climbs requiring a lot of pushing the bike uphill and then carrying/sliding the bikes down nasty rocky-like gulches called backpacking trails began to annoy me.  Throw in downed trees and no real opportunity to get any cadence going, and the AHT was becoming a mental ass-kicker.

We stopped to grub a little.  I decided to eat a whole pack of orange energy chews shaped like little cubes.  I had never eaten all six at one time before that moment.  We had about seven or eight miles to go.  I swallowed some water and we moved on.

About thirty minutes later, I started to feel a little queasy.  I was minding the humidity more, and I knew I was probably on the dehydrated side of bodily fluid levels.  Still, my legs felt fine.

Some cross-country rocky sections were welcomed fun and games, taking my focus from my turning stomach.  Pushing on, we eventually came to the hard road that could be taken back to the parking area.  I immediately said I was taking it back to the car, nausea having set in.

It probably took about twenty minutes to get back to the car, but it felt like double that amount of time.  My gut was being rocked.  I wasn’t doing well.

Back at the car, I sat down in the parking lot.  Dizziness came on sudden, and the next thing I knew, I was announcing “I’m gonna puke.”  No announcement was necessary for the rest of the park.  When I puke, it’s loud!  Dry heaves followed by orange phlegm-like chunks in the watery mix was expelled from my system.

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There’s a first time for everything, right?!  As I said after puking the second time by the side of the highway, “One for the ages!”   Lesson learned for me:  drink more water if ingesting a whole pack of those energy squares.  What’s funny is that as I was eating that pack, I commented about how they are my current favorite energy food because they don’t sit heavy in my stomach and seem to process easily.  Hah!

Regarding the AHT, it’s a dirty backwoods ride that requires patience and a willingness to accept losing elevation quickly after a long, laborious climb.

Next time, I’d like to ride it counter clockwise.

Friend of the Forest

I went to bed with a belly full of Prima Pils, My Antonia, lentils, whole wheat pasta, pesto, artichoke hearts, tuna and salmon.  My legs had 80 miles of Ozark mtb riding in them.  The thought was to get up in the morning and ride some of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail, better known as LOViT, a newer hiking/biking trail that is not yet complete.

At the Denby Bay trailhead, I knew I had time to take a sport-paced ride to the Joplin trailhead some ten roundabout miles through the trees.  I wasn’t sure if my brain was ready for it.  I was leaning towards being mtb’ed out for the weekend.

When I clipped in and started down the trail, my legs were not happy with me.  They burned from the get-go, and it took a solid two miles before I felt like I was into some sort of groove.  By the time I made it over the Eagle Vista loop, which I didn’t take, I was pretty much done and was ready to get on the road back to Indiana.

LOViT was enjoyable, nonetheless.  The sections that I rode were an easy cross country roller of groomed singletrack.  The trail was well-marked at the various intersections and easy to navigate.  The plan is for it to be up around 40 miles when complete.  With Womble only a 25 minute drive away, the potential for 2 long trails so close together will hopefully be a boon for Mt. Ida.

Lake Ouachita, Arkansas

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You can camp in the Denby Bay camping area that is a little west of the LOViT trailhead on 270.  Non-electrical units are $8, and electric-hookup ones are $12 for the night.